borough-reeve has remained the chief magistrate of a petty corporation, or the pinder of a village has been designated by the title of a hogreeve. ----- Footnote 361: Grimm seems to think the word was originally Frankish, and only borrowed by the Alamanni, Saxons, and Scandinavians. Rechtsalt. p. 753. I am disposed to claim it for the Frisians and Saxons as well as the Franks. Footnote 362: Rechtsalt. p. 753. Footnote 363: Æðelst. v. 8. § 2, 3, 4. ----- Whatever were the original signification of the word, I cannot doubt that it is of the highest antiquity, as well as the office which it denotes. In all probability it was borne by those elected chiefs who presided over the freemen of the Gá in their meetings, and delivered the law to them in their districts[364]. Throughout the Germanic constitutions, and especially in this country, the geréfa always appears in connexion with judicial functions[365]: he is always the holder of a court of justice: thus:—“Eádweard the king commandeth all the reeves; that ye judge such just dooms, as ye know to be most righteous, and as it in the doombook standeth. Fear not, on any account, to pronounce folkright; and let every suit have a term, when it may be fullfilled, that ye may then pronounce.” Again:—“I will that each reeve have a gemót once in every four weeks; and so act that every man may have his right by law; and every suit have an end and a term when it shall be brought forward.” ----- Footnote 364: “Eliguntur in iisdem conciliis et principes, qui iura per pagos vicosque reddunt.” Tac. Germ. xii. Some tribes may have called these _principes_ by one name, some by another: ealdorman, ǽsaga, lahmon, are all legitimate appellations for a geréfa. Footnote 365: Leg. Eádw. i. § 1. Thorpe, i. 158. Leg. Eádw. i. § 2. Thorpe, i. 160. Leg. Eádw. i. §. 11. Thorpe, i. 164. See also Inst. Polity, § xi. Thorpe, ii. 318. ----- Upon this point it is unnecessary to multiply evidence, and I shall content myself with saying that wherever there was a court there was a reeve, and wherever there was a reeve, he held some sort of court for the guidance and management of persons for whose peaceful demeanour he was responsible. From this it is to be inferred that the geréfan were of very different qualities, possessed very different degrees of power, and had very different functions to perform, from the geréfa who gave law to the shire, down to the geréfa who managed some private landowner’s estate. It will be convenient to take the different classes of geréfan _seriatim_, and collect under each head such information as we can now obtain from our legal or historical monuments.